Category: Albums of the 60s

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#871 in the Series) is Otis Blue, Otis Redding Sings Soul. If you are a musical purist and do not allow live albums, compilations, or greatest hits packages to infiltrate your desert island disc knapsack, then Otis Blue / Otis Redding Sings Soul should be added to your collection post haste. The album, released in 1965 just months after the death of Sam Cooke, was the first really pure Otis Redding record. More cohesive in style, this effort has much more of a live feel about it, with the entire package (including the sultry, evocative blond on the album cover) produced with an artistic flow that was previously missing from his prior efforts that...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Break Away” by The Next Exit Here’s a slab of psycho-delicatessen from the original “Fab Four!” What’s in a name? The Next Exit recorded two psychedelic singles for Warner Bros. Records in 1968 that went nowhere on the charts, and for some, that would’ve been the end of the story. However, The Next Exit’s convoluted history had them recording numerous singles under a myriad of names for many years, and at the end of the day, they still found no commercial success. Today’s Song Of The Day is a prime slab of psychedelia that in a perfect world would have made The Next Exit household names. The track was originally released...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Horse” by Cliff Nobles & Co. Cliff Nobles was a gospel singer from Alabama who relocated to Philadelphia to break into the recording industry. He was quickly signed to Atlantic records where he recorded three singles: “My Love Is Getting Stronger,” “Let’s Have A Good Time” and “Your Love Is All I Need” that failed to find any action on the charts. As a result of his affiliation with Atlantic, he was signed to a local Philadelphia record label called “Phil-L.A. of Soul Records” by independent producer Jesse James and formed the group Cliff Nobles & Co. consisting of Benny Williams on bass, Bobby Tucker on guitar, and Tommy Soul...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Good Shepherd” by Jefferson Airplane The epiphany of an eight year old… The backdrop of my childhood played out with images of the Viet Nam war and the unrest that culminated in the protests at the 1968 Democratic Convention coming over the television screen. While I wasn’t privy to what it all meant, I did know that the world around me was changing and that my older sister and her peers were making it happen. And I also knew that I very badly wanted to be a part of it all. I was eight years old in 1969 visiting my grandmother’s house when up the drive came the coolest MG convertible...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Soulful Strut” by Young-Holt Unlimited It was a breath of funked out fresh air when “Soulful Strut” hit the charts in 1968, and today the song is one of the most refreshing instrumentals of all time. Eldee Young (bass) and Isaac “Red” Holt (drums) were Chicago musicians who made up the rhythm section for The Ramsey Lewis Trio. After gigging with Lewis for ten years and scoring the monster hit “The In Crowd,” Young and Holt left to form their own jazz combo called The Young-Holt Trio with pianist Don Walker. Together, the trio scored a top 20 R&B hit with “Wack Wack,” and recorded several records for the Brunswick record...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Psychotic Reaction” by The Count Five “I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night” by The Electric Prunes, “Dirty Water” by The Standells, “Pushin’ Too Hard” by The Seeds, “Hey Joe” by The Leaves, “Farmer John” by The Premiers – these are some of the greatest garage rock classics of all time. But, perhaps the gnarliest rave up of them all is today’s Song Of The Day, “Psychotic Reaction” by The Count Five. The Count Five formed in San Jose, California in the early 1960s and consisted of John “Mouse” Michalski on guitar, Roy Chaney on bass, John “Sean” Byrne on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Craig “Butch” Atkinson on drums....

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Simple Game” by The Four Tops Today’s Song Of The Day could have only happened in that strange and mystical place where the worlds of The Moody Blues and The Four Tops intersect. “Simple Game” was originally the B-side to the Moody Blues’ 1967 single “Ride My See-Saw.” The song was written by Michael Pinder, and didn’t appear on a Moody Blues album until the two record compilation This Is The Moody Blues in 1972. Moody Blues’ producer Tony Clark went to see the Tops in England and approached them with a demo of the song. The group didn’t know who Clark was, but liked the song and agreed to record...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Take A Giant Step” by Taj Mahal There is no rhyme or reason as to how I come up with the songs I choose to write about every day. They usually spring out of something I’ve been listening to or something I’ve read. So, if you regularly follow this column, you’ll get a pretty good idea of some of the stuff I listen to on a daily basis. For instance, today’s Song Of The Day came about after reading a review of the first of three Rolling Stones concerts in Chicago this week. Now, I’m not planning on attending any of their shows here as I believe they’ve not only totally...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Classical Gas” by Mason Williams It’s an album that starts with an Overture. No, it’s not a Broadway Cast album or film soundtrack to a musical; however, it is an album with lofty levels of conceit and pretension that could only have been recorded in the late ‘60s by Mason Williams. And for The Mason Williams Phonograph Album, it all makes sense since Williams is an artist of high conceit and pretension with a supreme talent level to match. Fortunately (for him and his fans), he was coddled by the most artist friendly record labels of the 1960s, Warner Bros. Records, for otherwise, a record like The Mason Williams Phonograph Album...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Guitar Man” by Jerry Reed It was difficult to take Jerry Reed seriously, and one suspects it was all by his own design. Reed’s larger than life persona was that of a goofy country hick who sure could tell a tall tale, and numerous TV appearances on The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour and The Johnny Cash Show, novelty story-song records like “Lord, Mr. Ford” and “When You’re Hot, You’re Hot,” and numerous movie appearances with the likes of Burt Reynolds and Adam Sandler cemented this notion in the psyche of the American music loving public. But Jerry Reed was a C.G.P. The C.G.P., or Certified Guitar Player, was a title originated...